


unless you show me how

by safeandsound13



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: All Human, F/M, Family, Friendship, Love, M/M, McCall Family Feels, Other, brief mention of isaac / erica, isaac centric, mainly just brotp-ing this shit up, mentions of abuse, mentions of scott and allison and isaac and allison, one sided allisaac, protect isaac lahey at all costs, some cursing involved, theres heavy scisaac friendship, this personally hurt my feelings when i was writing it, to the point of brotherhood really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-14
Updated: 2014-12-14
Packaged: 2018-03-01 09:05:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2767493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/safeandsound13/pseuds/safeandsound13
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Isaac doesn't grow up practically an orphan, but instead gets taught my the McCalls what family really is.</p>
            </blockquote>





	unless you show me how

_don't get too close_

_it's dark inside_

_it's where my demons hide_

x

Isaac Lahey moves in with the McCalls sixteen days after his seventh birthday.

The McCalls seem nice but he's learned that seeming nice and being nice are two completely things.

There's this man, Mr. McCall, who isn't home a lot because he has an important job as some sort of agent and he makes Isaac feel kind of bad, like deep down he knows what kind of man he really is (and it's not  _nice_ ) so he doesn't really say anything to him, not that he does to anyone else, though, talking is not really something he's used to.

There's also this boy, who's his age, called Scott, who shares his toys with him (he really likes the  _g.i. joe_  figurine he's seen laying around on Scott's bedroom floor once but he's afraid that he might break it or ruin it if he does play with it, he doesn't trust himself with it) and doesn't give him weird looks when he'd rather play alone. He usually just waits for Scott to leave the toys at his door before he dares to touch them. It took him a few days to get the hang of it, playing with these dolls and making up stories and having this funny feeling like he  _needs_  to smile, but he likes it.  _Playing_.

Then there's Mrs. McCall, who found him at the back-entrance of the hospital with a bruised eye and a broken arm and bleeding fingers ( _his father usually wasn't that stupid, he never hit him where other people could see, he never hurt him so badly he had to go to the hospital, he never hurt him so badly they wouldn't be able to cover it up with some story about a bad fall down the stairs or a run in with a door)_ and she took care of him, understood he didn't like to be touched, not when all touching ever did was hurt him, but held him when he cried anyway and he learned that touch can heal,  _too_.

She stayed with him for two days, never leaving him alone, and then when he was finally able to eat after a week, she brushed aside his curls and looked at him with dark brown eyes filled with sadness and pity - and he didn't want her pity, he just wanted to go home to his dad and forget all of this ever happened, forget he was stuck in freezer for  _days_  this time, forget he almost had to  _crawl_  to the back alley behind the hospital, forget that the doctor said he could've died, forget this lady that he wasn't sure he could trust but had the kindest eyes he'd ever seen - and asked him, "Isaac, what happened to you, sweetie?"

He winced at her touch but was afraid to tell her not to (because she might not like it if he did, because it kind of reminded him of his own mom and that hurt even more than his bruised ribs and his broken arm and his scraped off fingertips), and thought of how badly his dad would hurt him if he told her the truth.

That he had been so excited about his birthday and that he had gotten a present and that he had accidentally dropped his piece of cake, the part with the candle shaped like a seven on it, and that his dad just started yelling and he had tried to cover his ears, he had then tried to protect his head and then his body but it was no use. It had kind of been his fault and wouldn't this lady just think he deserved what he got? He shouldn't have dropped the piece of cake and then they wouldn't have been in this situation. He just wanted to go home and forget.

So he says, "I fell down the stairs."

"You didn't fall down the stairs, Isaac," she says softly as she takes his hand and squeezes it, "It's okay, you can tell me what happened."

Two tall man appeared behind her and one of them was wearing a gold star on his chest, like he'd seen once in a cowboy movie. This wasn't good. Were they going to take him to jail if he told the truth?

He was starting to sweat and he wasn't feeling good and he tried to focus on the star and think of the day he saw that cowboy movie with the horses and the guns and then he remembered his dad threw a vase at him later that same day and he can't really breathe.

He thinks he's going to die because he can't breathe and he can't see but then the lady squeezes his hand tighter and tells him it's going to be okay and he needs to get away from here, so he repeats himself, "I fell down the stairs. I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry..."

She rocks him to her chest and brushes his hair away from his face and he doesn't like any of this, the touching, the talking, the two men - but then she says, "Nobody can hurt you now, Isaac, you're safe." and he has to tell. He has to tell the truth because her voice is laced with hope and comfort and he misses his mom and he  _needs_  to tell.

It doesn't get any easier after that.

Then the lady starts to tell a story about Scott, about he keeps asking for a little brother and even though he's the same age as him, she would still like for him to come live with them. He's so confused and he doesn't want to hurt her feelings and he doesn't know what to say, so he agrees and tries not to get his hopes up about this lady. He knows people aren't always the same on the outside as on the inside.

Mrs. McCall,  _Melissa_  (he learns later) - she lets him keep his own name, says she doesn't want confuse him anymore and that the last name McCall doesn't deserve such a great kid, and she gives him a room and buys him lots of new clothes and gives him a lot food (like all the time, it's exhausting how much he has to eat every day but he couldn't possibly say no) and tries to make him feel at home even though he knows he'll probably never will.

(He thinks they're nice, though, honestly nice, Melissa - and Scott - and that truthfully, he's the one who doesn't deserve to be called the same as them.)

x

He gets these panic attacks, he thinks Melissa calls them, sometimes. Usually at night, when he wakes up sweaty and wet with tears rolling down his cheeks, and he feels like he can't breathe and he sees black, like that night in the hospital and it takes a few weeks for the McCalls to even notice he gets them.

One morning Scott finds him in the closet - rocking back and forth, his hands covering his ears as he whispers ' _stop_ ' over and over and over and over and over... - and it's then he hears Mrs. McCall and Mr. McCall talk about these  _panic attacks_  later that day when he's trying to make his homework.

He hates getting them, he hates the nightmares, he hates the look on everyone's face when they ask him about it (like God, how much problems does this kid have?) and sometimes he feels like everyone would just be better off without him around.

But Mrs. Mc-  _Melissa_  comes to read him a story every night before bed, now, and stays with him until he's asleep and Scott gives him his favorite teddy bear, says it'll protect him, and they don't go away, they never do, but they come less and less until one saturday, when he's lived with them for six months, he recalls he hasn't had a nightmare for two weeks.

x

When he turns eight, he goes to a new school. It's the same one Scott goes to and it's closer to the McCalls' house.

He's never really liked school. He's not bad at it (he likes how it takes his mind off of everything, he likes his mind busy) and he's not scared all the time that he's doing something wrong but the kids, they're mean, and the teachers, they don't understand.

Scott lets him sit with him and this other kid, Stiles, though. Stiles is kind of weird and he talks a lot and he does this thing where he says one thing but actually means the opposite but Scott likes him so he must be okay, and they talk about sport and television and teachers and he mostly just sits there until he's asked about something but they always let him sit in the middle so he doesn't feel left out and he likes feeling like he's a part of something, you know?

(Scott also buys them pizza for lunch sometimes and promises him his mom won't find out and Stiles teaches him the rules of lacrosse and he himself helps Scott with his homework when Stiles gets to fed up to continue helping him and the three of them watch a lot of movies in the weekends except  _star wars_  because for some weird reason Scott refuses to watch it whenever Stiles brings it over.)

There's this one kid, Jackson, who used to live across from him and he's popular and has a lot of friends and is into sports and he doesn't know why, but he has it out for him (he wonders what's wrong with him sometimes, all the time) and he pushes this brand new bike Mrs. McCall bought for him to the ground one day and the sidewalk scratches it and he's never been this mad and he pushes Jackson to the ground and kicks him and then there's Scott.

He's not mad when he sees him kick Jackson in the shins, just pulls him back and says he's better than this and he thinks Scott is everything he would like to be someday, when he's not continuously screwing up, and making everything worse and always doing or saying the wrong thing.

(It's just, he's never dealt with other people like this before and the only way he learned how to, was to use actions instead of words.)

He sits in his closet for hours after school, the words keep ringing in his ears - " _you're better than this, Isaac, you're better than this, Isaac, you're better than this, Isaac_ " - as he tells himself he should be better, he's going to be better, he  _needs_  to be better (for them).

x

He sees this therapist every tuesday until he's about ten and he remembers the first question she ever asked him, glasses on the rim of her nose and notebook on her lap, "Can you tell me what happened to you, Isaac?", a question she repeated every session.

All he could focus on was the tapping of her pen against the side of the notebook and the tiny trickle of sweat running down the side of his face - he didn't know what to say, didn't know what was even considered the wrong or right thing to say, didn't like to be asked about it.

So he doesn't say anything (it is kind of this thing he does now and then) or tells her little stories, little parts and fragments of what happened to him.

Through the weeks and months and years he thinks he finally answered her question though, he lost a family - that when he lost his mom, he also lost his dad and that nothing hurt more then the feeling of being alone and not being good enough and hating himself for always making others hate him for some reason. Then, when he turned seven he got lucky and gained one - a family - that slowly taught him that he was a good kid, that he shouldn't have to hate himself for what his father did to him and that he truly  _was_  a good kid.

The last question she ever asks him is, "Do you feel safe, now, Isaac? After all these years?"

He swallows because when he thinks of Melissa, who makes him his favorite food every thursday but still tries out a different mexican recipe every time and Scott who shares all his stuff without being weird or jealous or annoyed about it and even Mr. McCall who gave him money and a smile when he showed his report card even though he had one B - and also Stiles, who practically lives with them, too, the other guy besides Scott that's ever been nice to him and who really likes science fiction movies and eats so much food that he wonders how he isn't the size of a small car yet and he also thinks of his room and clothes and toys - when he thinks of all that, he feels good,  _happy_. And safe.

"Yes."

She smiles.

That's the last time he sees her.

x

He knows he isn't normal, he isn't stupid. Sometimes he flinches when someone slams the door too loud, and there are days when he just doesn't talk at all, and when he's locked into small spaces he gets the worst panic attacks he's ever had and he just can't see straight, and sometimes the only way he knows how to deal with all these feelings and emotions and  _pain_  is to punch a wall or kick a chair or a person or to tear himself down with words.

And the feelings like he's going to have to leave soon, that he's going to screw up and somebody is going to yell never goes away but the feeling like he can't be himself at home does. c

He isn't constantly scared that when he says he doesn't like Pokémon and Scott does that Scott's going to stop talking to him.

And that when he gets a bad grade that Mr. McCall will make him scrub the entire bathroom with a toothbrush until his fingers bleed.

And that when he doesn't clean his room or stays up too late that Melissa is going to not like him anymore and send him away and leave him by himself (again).

He's eleven years old and he knows he isn't normal and probably will never be but it's weird because the McCalls make him feel like he  _is_ , and like he is part of their family and he can be  _him_. He trusts them and they learned him to make him trust himself.

x

A few days after Scott's twelfth birthday the yelling gets really bad.

Not the yelling in his head, but the fighting and screaming between Scott's parents. They're sitting on Scott's room playing with his new nintendo game while they hear shouts of ' _you never listen to me_ ', the ' _you're never even here_ ' and the ' _I wish I had never married you_ '.

(They overhear the yelling more often, but it's never this bad and it's never this many nights in a row and it's never so  _present_.)

He's seen Mrs. McCall's puffy red eyes before in the morning or when she would come to say goodnight and he's seen how stressed Mr. McCall has been about work and he's just had this feeling in the pit of his stomach for days, that this was all too good to be true and something  _had_  to go wrong.

He looks over at Scott who has tears in his eyes and he pretends he's really into racing around with this stupid car in this stupid game and he knows Scott's really sensitive, even more than him sometimes, and Scott hates this, he hates all of this and he knows how he feels, you know, and he knows how much it sucks so he squeezes his shoulder as he asks him,

"I put some new music on my iPod, do you wanna hear it?"

Scott nods, silently thanking him with his eyes as Isaac offers him one earbud and puts the volume on the loudest and puts the other earbud in his own ear as he scrolls through the songs and picks a really loud rock number by some band called  _paramore_ and makes a point of talking extra loudly as he comments on about every lyric _._

The iPod was a christmas gift and he usually never listened to music but he's found that music can really help him when he feels that particular need to punch a wall and he's glad that he can make that feeling go away for someone else, he's glad he gets to share that, especially with Scott. He doesn't deserve this, he can't help but think, Scott doesn't deserve a broken family (not like he did, he had).

The next day, at dinner, they get told Scott's parents are getting a divorced.

It doesn't come as a shock, it shouldn't come as a shock at least, but he looks over at Scott, who's in full tears by now and he's never actually seen him cry and he feels really protective for some reason and he realizes that since Scott is kind of like his brother (because it honestly feels like he is) then Mr. and Mrs. McCall are kind of like his parents, right, so that why his chest must sting like this. It stings when he sees the tears in Mrs. McCall's eyes and it stings when he watches Mr. McCall stare at his dinner in silence and it stings extra hard when Scott gets up from the table and locks himself in his room.

This isn't supposed to be happening and this just all hurts and he wants to be strong, wants to be better for them, but his eyes sting with tears and he can't breathe and he gets another attack that night when he's laying in bed and recalling all the signs - ( _they probably never fought before he came to live here, he must've done something wrong, this is all his fault, all his fault, all his fault, all his fault…_ ) - the nights Mr. McCall didn't even come home from work and the days on which Mrs. McCall was so quiet and distracted he was worried she was sick or hurt or something and he realizes now that she probably was.

They were supposed to be a family and he ruined it.

x

Mr. McCall moves out exactly two weeks after the dinner and they get a divorce and after that he never really sees him again.

He comes around for a visit now and then but Scott refuses to see him because he doesn't want to and neither does Mrs. McCall so that basically means he won't either. He has to stand by the family he still has left, the family that hasn't abandoned him and the family he has to protect and make proud because he owes them that.

He knows Scott has a hard time dealing with all of it, especially Scott.

(He knows exactly what it's like losing a father even though they aren't really dead but they're just gone. It's like a punch in the gut every time you breathe, knowing things will never be the same.)

But that's what he admires about Scott, that's why he wants to be exactly like him, because he gets back up when he gets knocked down and he goes to school and still talks to him and Stiles during lunch like nothing's happened and makes his homework and studies because he still wants to make his mother proud more than anything and he doesn't miss one single extra curricular activity.

Isaac remembers how hard it was, simply just continuing and breathing and getting up every morning just to get to school. Isaac sees how Scott just does it and never loses his smile in the process and it makes him proud that that's his brother and he wants Mrs. McC- Melissa and Scott to be proud of him, too, he just doesn't know how to be as strong as them.

(He hopes he can figure it out soon enough.)

x

Something changes when they go to high school.

They're in this new building with all these new people and it's not just the three of them anymore. It is, for a little while, because like animals, humans tend to stick to their pack when they're in unfamiliar situations but he notices the little changes. Maybe even more so than Scott and Stiles do.

Sometimes at lunch, Scott goes over to talk to some other guys for a few minutes while Stiles reads useless facts on his phone because he likes doing that unlike actually making his homework, occasionally telling him about one particular fun fact. And at times, they don't hang out on Saturday nights anymore because Scott has to work late at his job to clean the cat cages and Stiles is spending time playing some online magical game with mystical creatures.

He misses it, their time together, even though he knows they're still friends, but he also knows that change is a part of life and he doesn't mind spending his lunch times reading a George Orwell book or a Saturday night on his room with his ipod and some lame tv show.

There a lot of homework now, more than in middle school, and he wants to do well in school for Melissa so he spends most of his time studying or doing homework or reading books and when he's not busy with school he's practicing lacrosse.

Scott and Stiles are in the lacrosse team, too, and he loves it. He loves how he gets to throw this ball into a net and make people cheer and feel like he's worth something and he loves how he feels so worn out after a game that's he too tired to think.

x

In sophomore year, there's a tiny difference. Not only does he have a good two and a half inches on Scott now, something different has changed, too.

He's noticed them before, their shiny hair and their pink lips and their soft skin and their cute laughs -  _girls_  - but he's never really cared. He's seen them on tv and sometimes in the morning he woke up with something particularly weird going down in his pants but he's never actually liked an actual real one, you know.

But there's this new girl, Allison, and she's special and for the first time he cares, but.. but there's Scott, and Scott's Scott and Scott's his brother and Scott like, really fucking loves her and it's so confusing and frustrating and he doesn't know what to do.

Scott always knows what to do, he always knows what the right thing is, but he can't ask him about it, not about this. And Stiles, Stiles is even more clueless than Scott and he's been obsessed about Lydia Martin for years now but he can't go to him either because just thinking about Stiles telling Scott makes his skin crawl.

 

He doesn't want to like her (Scott's  _girlfriend_ ), doesn't want her to make his heart skip a beat when she smiles, doesn't want to get goosebumps whenever she sits next to him in history and she touches his arm when she doesn't get something - but he does and he doesn't know how to change it.

She's nice to him, unlike all the other girls (and boys), and that means a lot to him, and she doesn't ignore him when she comes over to their house and she bakes him cookies on his birthday even though it does sting when the card is signed with  _Love, Allison and Scott_.

He knows that he does a little bit more than just like her, just like he knows he can never have her.

x

Melissa asks him one time, when he's on his room on another lonely saturday night and he's been trying to read this poem over and over and over but he wasn't  _actually_  reading and he's sulking about his problems basically because he feels bad and he doesn't like feeling so fucking bad but it's not like he can help it you know?

She sits down on the end of his bed, next to his feet and raises her eyebrows as she states, "You've been quiet all night."

"I'm always quiet," he mumbles as he tries to focus on the words and not on the loud pounding of his heart in his ears.

_my sorrow; i could not awaken_

_my heart to joy at the same tone;_

_and all i loved, i loved alone._

His eyes blur for a few seconds when he looks up at Melissa who's staring at him with an amused grin. He looks back at the poem and the words hit him, he feels like that all the time. Alone.

"I know but you're  _extra_ broody today," she jokes, slapping his leg and he forces a small smile on his lips.

She crosses her arms as she studies him and his head snaps up at her words, "Is this about a girl?"

There's a glint of happiness in her eyes and he wished he had missed it because of course she thinks this is just about some girl, of course she thinks he's normal and that he likes just some girl, not his brother's damn girlfriend. He's so screwed up, he hates it, he hates it, he hates it. She'll hate him, too, if she'd know.

"It is!" She smiles brightly as she brushes a curl from her face before clasping her hands together. "What's her name?"

"I," he starts, licking his dry lips, and he wishes he would just get a panic attack or something because he doesn't want to talk about this, he'd rather lock himself in a damn closet or freezer for the night then talk about this and disappoint her again like he always does and prove to her and Scott and himself that he's nothing else beside a fucked up teenage boy with a tendency of self-destructing,  _again_.

But she looks at him with soft eyes and she reminds him so much of his own mother and he think that, if she'd let him, he'd call her mom, too, because it really feels like that, you know, like she's his mom, and he can't - he _can't_  lie to her.

He moves over to sit next to her as he tries to keep it all in for just one more second. He allows himself that one more second that he can feel like he's normal and he's just sitting on his bed with his kind of mother and they're talking about sports or school or  _girls_.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to," he blurts out as he quickly looks away from her and at his shoes, squeezing the side of the bed with his hands, so tightly, his knuckles turn white.

"What do you mean, Isaac?" She smiles at him and it physically hurts to know she trusts him that much and believes in him that much and all he can do is make her sorry for doing it in the first place.

"I like Allison," he whispers and the sound seems to fill the entire room and it's like his heart stops beating for a second.

"That's what I figured, you turn into a downright puppy whenever she's around. I can practically see the hearts in your eyes," she snickers lowly as she puts her hand on top of his and gives a small squeeze. "It's nothing to be ashamed of. It's definitely not something worth locking yourself in your room for and listening to moody music for three hours."

"It is," he snaps, and he immediately flinches at the sound of his own voice, "Allison is Scott's girlfriend. And I, I - I  _like_  her."

She doesn't say anything, just gives him a tiny sympathetic grin as she waits for him to continue.

He frowns, shakes his head a little to himself, "He would - He would  _never_  do that to me."

"Maybe so, but you can't help who you like, Isaac," she pauses, giving him one of her serious mom looks to know she's not just saying this because she's, well, kind of his mom, "Allison is a great girl and just because you happen to like her doesn't mean you're betraying Scott."

He sighs and part of him thinks she  _is_  just saying this because she has to and the other part of him wants to believe she's right so,  _so_  terribly bad.

"I know it's hard now but you'll see that over time, you'll stop thinking about her so much and it won't feel like this anymore, like you  _need_  her and then, you'll find someone new. The first part sucks but I know you're excited about the second part," she teasingly pushes his shoulder and he tries to hide a smile.

"Thanks," he mumbles as she gets up from the bed and she rolls her eyes. "Please, I'm a woman. We crave talking about this sort of stuff. It thrives me. I live for it. No, literally, if you  _ever_  have a problem like this, come to me. It fuels my very being. Seriously, I can't imagine -"

He laughs as he cuts her off, "I get it. I get it. You want to hear me and Scott whine about our girl problems as much as possible."

"You got it." She winks as she pauses in the doorstep, "You're a catch, Isaac, don't forget that."

Despite himself, he breaks out in a smile because honestly, he's not that big of a catch but hearing someone say it still makes him feel good.

He lays back down on his bed as she closes his door and puts his hands behind his head. He hopes so dearly that what she said was the truth. That he'll move on even though he feels that he could never move on from someone like Allison. (He hopes it'll be soon though, and he hopes that the thought of any girl ever liking  _him_  will stop making him blush, soon,  _too_.)

x

He kisses Allison this one time when they're sitting on the couch and they're waiting for Scott to come home from work and she laughed at his joke and it made his heart feel warm and he just kind of went for it.

He apologizes immediately and rushes off to his room because how could he be so stupid? How could he be so fucking stupid? How could he sabotage his friendship with both Allison and Scott at the same time for some dumb kiss?

Scott finds him about an hour later in the dark in the same position he found him all those years ago. He's in the corner of the closet with his head resting on his knees because after all this time he still can't handle feeling like a failure.

"It's okay, Isaac, Allison told me what happened," Scott tells him quietly as he turns on the lights in the room and sits down next to him. "You didn't mean to."

"I did," he barks back, because he can't lie, not to Scott, and he needs to know the truth, too. He needs to know that Isaac is a huge fucking screw-up and he'll always be one and then maybe he'll finally stop feeling sorry for him all the time. "I did mean to!"

"I know," he says and he closes his eyes in response and he waits for it. The punch or the push or the yelling or the shunning. When he opens his eyes after a few moments though, Scott is just looking at him.

"It's hard not to like her, you know?" He laughs a little, softly, as he adds, "She's kind of amazing."

"I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry," he stammered as he runs his hands through his hair and shakes his head. "I never meant to like her."

"You messed up. It doesn't mean I'm going to kick you out of the house and leave you for dead," the slightly tanner boy confesses as he steadily says, "We're brothers."

"For what it's worth I'm really sorry," Isaac repeats, his eyes big because for some reason he still feels like he doesn't deserve this, that he isn't worthy of having someone like Scott as a  _brother_.

Scott laughs but then turns half serious for a second, giving him a stern look, "If you do it again I might have to punch you, though. Like, in the face and all."

Isaac grins, "Deal."

x

He meets a girl in class, or finally notices her, he guesses, named Erica. She has frizzy blonde hair and is kind of quiet and shy and she doesn't talk much like him and  _like him_ , people don't like to hang around her.

At first it's awkward because he's not used to actually talking to other people beside Scott and Stiles and Allison and well, Melissa, but that's all different. But Erica kind of gets him with this whole being different and feeling alone in a crowd thing, you know? And she tells him about her epilepsy and he tells her about his panic attacks and she tells him which music she likes and he lets her listen to his music and sometimes they make out.

He learns that Erica is much better at kissing than Allison is, not that he'll ever admit it because that would mean admitting he actually kissed Allison, and he learns that his heart can beat faster in a good way whenever she hugs him or kisses his cheek or holds his hand and he learns that when she smiles, he wants to see that smile everyday and he would do anything to make it happen. Literally anything.

So it kind of happens. Him and Erica. And it all feels so normal and easy and good and right.

He's happy, he's so happy, because now he dreams of Erica instead of Allison and now he gets to do all this new stuff with her that he really likes and it doesn't hurt when he sees Scott and Allison and he's so grateful he met her and that one dark night Melissa found him and took him in and showed him what it is to love, really  _love_.

He's happy. He's actually happy.

x

He's a senior and legal in about fifteen countries now and Melissa thought it would be fun to throw him a party for his birthday. He accepts because when will he ever say no to Melissa when she actually offers to make nachos with cheese because he just honestly _really_  loves mexican and she wants to invite all his friends so it's all good. It's all more than good.

He looks around at all these people in his living room - he looks at Stiles who's once again trying to hit on Lydia (who is blatantly ignoring him as she stares at her nails) by talking her ear off next to the snack table, he looks at Allison who's sitting on Scott's lap on the couch as they both laugh, he looks at his beautiful,  _beautiful_  girlfriend who's talking to one of their friends Boyd before she walks over to him and intertwines their fingers as she pulls him into the conversation and he even notices Melissa as she brings in extra snacks sending him a small thumbs up - and his heart swells to about ten times it's size because he knows this is family and this is home.

He knows he doesn't have to change his last name to McCall or have to pretend to be anything he's not to know that  _this_ , this is family and that this family, this pack, it's forever.

x

_i can't escape this now_

_unless you show me how_

x

 

**Author's Note:**

> one of my many tries at teen wolf but for once i decided to post it. sorry for any inconsistencies or errors, i watched the entire show about seventeen thousand times but i am human and and i am sorry but i'm not sorry that i'm going to quote hannah montana here, everybody makes mistakes.
> 
> i do love this show very much and i do love isaac very much and also scott and also everyone else so i hope i did it justice. and i mean this is really hard because getting in his head and shit that is frickin' depressing and i don't know for sure if this is entirely in character but i hope it is.
> 
> i brotp scisaac very hard but that's it. this was not a romantic scisaac story (maybe if you squint), i apologize, maybe i should've put that at the top or something?¿? i don't really ship isaac with erica either but i wanted to give him a happy ending, because that angel muffin deserves it.
> 
> song is demons by imagine dragons and the poem that is mentioned in the story is alone from edgar allen poe, one of my favorite's i encourage you to consider checking it out because it is amazeballs and it's so isaac lahey i cry sometimes.
> 
> please review, it would mean a lot. :)


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